


A Model Schnee

by ChipAndDealer



Category: RWBY
Genre: Character Analysis, Drama, Faunus Discussion, Faunus Politics, Friendship, Gen, Ruby and Yang teamwork, Set somewhere in V3, Team Dynamics, Writing Weiss and Blake happy is against my religion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-08 02:13:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21468379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChipAndDealer/pseuds/ChipAndDealer
Summary: Blake's eyes drifted over to the sink, and the variety of what must have been grooming tools the heiress employed. Gleaming silver clippers and tweezers each arranged in their proper places. Blake couldn't imagine spending so much time plucking eyebrows and clipping nails. It was like Weiss dedicated her life to it.A niggling thought poked at the back of her mind, and despite Blake's efforts to ignore it, finally forced its way to the surface.What if Weiss was a faunus?
Relationships: Blake Belladonna & Weiss Schnee
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	A Model Schnee

From a purely scheduling perspective, team RWBY was perfectly suited for each other. Weiss always woke up at the crack of dawn, performing her early morning activities and training for a few hours before classes began. Yang rose with the sun, spending far too long showering in the morning and eventually heading to breakfast, working out during the afternoon. Ruby Rose ruby rose just in time to meet her sister for breakfast, and Blake slept late, eating something light during her first class.

Generally speaking, no one woke anyone else before their time, there wasn't an issue with who had the bathroom when, and everyone was happy.

The fly in the ointment, in this case, was Jaune.

From a purely personality perspective, team JNPR was perfectly suited to each other. Ren and Pyrrha were quiet, Nora and Jaune were loud, and each spoke up for each other in unique ways, making sure they were all represented in team decisions and generally meshing well as a team. Whether because of this or due to pure coincidence, Jaune, Ren, Pyrrha, and Nora, all woke up at exactly the same time, and crammed themselves into the bathroom to begin their respective morning routines.

On that particular day, JNPR had woken early on account of a fighting tournament with some of Pyrrha's old friends and in between Ren trimming his cuticles and Pyrrha's morning stretches, the topic of faunus came up.

"I'm just saying, if Sun has a tail, Blake should have a tail, too. It's just inconsistent, otherwise," Nora said, toothbrush still in her mouth.

"But Sun doesn't have monkey ears," Pyrrha pointed out.

"Human ears are a form of monkey ears," Ren added, finishing off his last finger.

Jaune's eyebrows furrowed. "Hey, doesn't Blake have human ears and cat ears?"

All three of them paused, considering. "Does she?" Nora asked.

Pyrrha nodded. "No, she definitely does. Huh. How does that work?"

Ren raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, how does it work? She's a faunus."

Pyrrha tugged on an earlobe. "She's got four ears, four audio canals, but only one speech center in the brain, right? So how does she process sounds?"

Nora shrugged. "One of the sets could be a dummy pair. Like, they're attached but they don't connect to anything?"

Jaune grimaced. "What, like fake ears?"

Ren hummed, one hand on his chin. "Fake ears would make more sense than four audio channels, two of which are more sensitive. If that were the case, everything she hears would have an echo attached."

"She gets irritable enough, I wouldn't be too surprised," Jaune grumbled.

"She can't be the only faunus with two sets of ears," Pyrrha reasoned, looking through her scroll. "Someone has to have written a paper on this or something."

"They wouldn't," Ren differed. "The White Fang blocks pretty much any research into faunus. They say the only reason it's done is because humans want to figure out how to identify them and wipe them out."

"That's ridiculous," Jaune spluttered. "You can't stop science just because you're afraid of the way people might use the information. What would you even need to identify them from, anyway? The animal bits are pretty much a dead giveaway."

Ren's frown deepened. "In the case of unions between a faunus and a human, there's a chance the baby could be either one. If there was a way to tell before the birth, it would be a pretty easy choice for some families which they would rather keep, on both sides."

"There's also more faunus like Blake, that might hide it," Nora pointed out. "The animal part isn't even that noticeable for some of them. It'd be pretty easy for most of them to just grow their hair out longer to cover horns, or stuff their tail into their pants, and we'd probably never know."

"Maybe in town, but these are dorms with shared bath and bedrooms." Jaune shook his head. "There's no way a secret like that could go on for long."

"Blake got found out pretty early," Pyrrha agreed, "and she wasn't just hiding her being a faunus, she was hiding her being a terrorist, too. Can't say too many have that kind of commitment to keeping a secret like that, and she still got caught."

Jaune scratched his head. "This still doesn't answer the ears, though."

"You could just call Blake," Ren suggested. "If anyone would know, she would."

Jaune hesitated, scratching the back of his head. "I don't know… Blake and I aren't really even friends, and isn't this a bit personal?"

"We've basically been talking about her behind her back for five minutes," Pyrrha said, dryly. "And besides, I'm sure she considers you a friend."

Jaune had his doubts, but under the combined stares of his three teammates, flicked through his scroll contacts and called Blake.

"What's going on? Are the White Fang attacking again?" She asked, breathing heavy like she'd been given a fright or just woke u-

Jaune checked the time and winced. He'd forgotten that not everyone moved on the same schedules his team did. "No, everything's fine. We were just talking about faunus and wondered if you knew some answers."

Blake sighed, silent for a minute besides a few deep breaths as she apparently went back to lying on her bed. "Go ahead," she said, voice tinged with annoyance but not enough to turn down the request.

Jaune gave a brief overview of the conversation so far, and Blake listened patiently before going through her answers.

"Well, first off, faunus develop one to three animal traits when they're children. I don't really know when to when, but by six you've pretty much got what you're getting, and no, I don't have a tail; those are actually pretty rare as far as traits go. Mostly they affect the head in one way or another," she began, and Jaune put the call on speakerphone so everyone could listen to the explanation. "All my ears are connected, but my cat ones hear high frequencies while my other ears hear low ones. It's normally pretty convenient, and if I need to, I can flatten them to block out most sounds."

The collected teammates, 'ah'ed at the information, glad to finally have the answer to the puzzling question of a few minutes before.

"As for the rest," she continued, "the White Fang gets most of its power from fear mongering. Shutting down research into faunus is just part of that. And it'd be much harder for a faunus to hide here than you might think. There's more than just the obvious physical traits, especially for other faunus. Scent, pheromones, allergies, fear responses, even ways of moving or speaking can change between human and faunus. If you wanted to hide that from a faunus, it would require impossible amounts of upkeep, you'd basically have to rededicate your life to fooling people. If Velvet was in our year, I wouldn't have lasted three days without her knowing what I was."

"Aww," Nora pouted. "There goes my secret faunus theory."

"Don't feel too bad, Nora," Blake said, voice tinged with amusement. "Just because there aren't any here doesn't mean they aren't out there…" she trailed off. "Somewhere."

Team JNPR began arguing about which random or famous individuals might be faunus in disguise and Blake rolled her eyes fondly and ended the call. They definitely didn't need her for that.

There was always a possibility there were more faunus disguised as humans, but her particular case was special. She honestly doubted it was true. Still, that was no reason to shoot down Nora, even if, in retrospect, she did get a bit concerned that Nora would act on her theory and start testing random people to see if they were faunus.

Blake sighed, slumping back onto her pillows. She was tired, but it was nearly impossible for her to go back to bed after being woken up. "Thanks, Jaune," she grumbled, making her way to the floor.

She knocked on the bathroom door, hearing the shower running inside.

"Yes?" Weiss' voice came from within, lightly tinged with annoyance.

"It's Blake, I just have to use the toilet, do you mind?" She asked, not nearly as embarrassed to ask now as she might have been at the beginning of their shared rooming situation.

Weiss sighed. "It's not locked."

Blake opened the door, weathering the oppressive burst of steam and scents as she entered. Really, it was a wonder Weiss could breathe through all this, Blake thought, sitting down to do her business.

Her eyes drifted over to the sink, and the variety of what must have been grooming tools the heiress employed. Gleaming silver clippers and tweezers each arranged in their proper places. Blake couldn't imagine spending so much time plucking eyebrows and clipping nails. It was like Weiss dedicated her life to it.

A niggling thought poked at the back of her mind, and despite Blake's efforts to ignore it, finally forced its way to the surface.

What if Weiss was a faunus?

It was ridiculous, obviously, and Blake had already explained why, to Jaune and the others, but the thought remained. The scent Weiss always wore was overpowering, enough that Blake had no idea what her teammate naturally smelled like. She couldn't detect any faunus pheromones on her, but human pheromones could be bought, and was she really thinking about this?

Blake shook her head, moving to wash her hands. This was Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company and resident faunus racist. Okay, maybe that was a little harsh, but before she got to know Blake, Weiss' opinions on the animal people were not exactly kind. There's wasn't a chance she was somehow secretly a faunus.

She looked down at the silver tools again, knowing that not all of their purposes were immediately apparent. Her hand hovered over a razor as Blake bit her lip.

Some faunus grow fur in odd places.

She shook her head.

And some ladies like to shave their legs.

Her hand dropped to her side. She was being crazy. Damn Jaune and damn this early hour. "Thanks, Weiss," she said, leaving the bathroom.

The tiny drop of blood on the clippers was dismissed as a trick of the light.

It was an unfortunate fact of life, however, that in Blake's uniquely stubborn brain, ideas had a troubling persistence. During class, her eyes kept going to the white haired heiress, hoping for a sign, a confirmation, even after scolding herself that the whole thing was foolish, she couldn't stop herself from looking.

Classes bled into combat, yet Weiss' style was as clean and crisp as ever. Blake didn't even know what she was looking for as she watched, but whatever it was, she didn't find it. She should have been satisfied.

She kept watching during lunch. Weiss ate meat. Weiss ate vegetables. Nothing she did was out of the ordinary. She used her own salt and pepper shakers, but she'd done that since the beginning. The normal Beacon spices were 'too low quality,' apparently, even though Blake had her doubts on that. Salt was salt, how high quality did it need to be? But she was getting off focus. There was nothing weird going on with Weiss.

"Why are you acting so weird?" Weiss asked, dragging Blake to the side as Ruby and Yang went ahead. "Seriously, what is going on?" After a moment, her eyes widened. "Did you see me in the shower?" She asked, covering her chest with an arm like Blake had developed xray vision in the span of a few moments.

"Absolutely not," Blake denied, somewhat scandalized. "You know I wouldn't peep like that."

Weiss calmed down, letting her arm drop. "You're right, I'm sorry. It's just, earlier you were there, and now you've been staring at me all day." She sighed. "What's going on, Blake?"

Blake brushed her hair back, scratching at her ears behind the bow in frustration. "I… I don't know. It's stupid, you know?"

"What's stupid?" Weiss pressed.

"I thought you might be a faunus," Blake blurted out, and Weiss took a step back like she'd been struck.

"What?" Was the only word she choked out, seeming to grow paler than even her usual hue.

"Well, it was Jaune called, and his team was talking about faunus, and I told them about my ears, but Nora thought there were more faunus pretending to be human, and I said that's impossible, and it's so stupid, but I was in the bathroom and I saw all those clippers and things, and I started thinking about how much upkeep it would take to make it happen, and how rigid you always were about it," Blake babbled as Weiss grew paler and paler. "You cover yourself in these scents all the time, until I can't smell anything else when you're next to me. You walk so straight and upright, I can't tell what your natural bearing is. You wake up before everyone else and spend who knows how long plucking and pulling, at who knows what. I've never seen you change in front of the rest of us, I've never even seen you wear anything without sleeves. I mean, we live and sleep in the same room, but I don't know what your shoulders look like."

Weiss looked down, clenching her fists.

"And I know your childhood must have been rough, that your parents were strict and probably taught you that all this stuff was only proper and if you didn't do it you're not a real Schnee, I know that. I didn't even think all this stuff bugged me, but I was sitting in class and I looked over at you and thought, 'if you were a faunus, I'd never know it,'" Blake shook her head, breathing heavily from the rapid, almost unintelligible stream she'd just communicated. "You're my teammate, Weiss. I hardly know anything about you."

"You want to know about me?" Weiss said, barely restrained rage in her tone. "Fine, here's me: I didn't have a 'rough childhood.' I didn't have an anything childhood. By age four, I was writing my own music, by age eight, I could wield a rapier, and by age ten, I could perform my semblance. My 'parents' didn't teach me how to walk upright, or what was and wasn't appropriate to wear, my sister did before she left me. You want to know me, Blake? Know this: everyone I have ever liked has either left me or died at the hands of the White Fang." Without another word, without even looking up at Blake's face, Weiss turned on her heel and walked away.

From a purely emotional perspective, team RWBY was a powder keg. Each member was incredibly stubborn in their own ways, with points of view and life experiences that didn't always mesh with each other, and each grew heated when defending their position, literally, in Yang's case.

Arguments among team RWBY came fast and often, but always inevitably burned out quickly. Well, most of them, anyway. There was once or twice an argument would last longer, in the case of Yang going off on Blake for endangering Ruby in a training exercise, or Ruby and Weiss' ongoing troubles for the first few days, but for the most part tempers cooled after a couple days at most.

"It's been a week," Ruby whined, pulling idly at her hair. "Why haven't Blake and Weiss been talking to each other?"

Yang sighed, laying the magazine she was reading on her face. "I dunno, Rubes. We only left them alone for, like, two minutes. What could they have even said to each other?"

Ruby gasped. "What if Blake confessed her love? But then Weiss said no, and now they're both too embarrassed to talk about it?"

"That's… possible," Yang granted, eventually, "but I'm pretty sure neither of them are really romance focused. Blake dropped Sun like fire dust, and Weiss and Neptune only really hung out at the dance." She considered for a moment. "Though, come to think of it, Blake had been looking at Weiss weird all day before they stopped talking to each other."

Ruby jabbed a finger at Yang, whose eyes were just peeking over the top of the magazine. "Aha, proof."

Yang reached up and lowered the finger. "Not proof, but it might be a lead. Can you think of anything anyone said to Blake that might have set her off?"

Ruby considered, finally shaking her head. "Nope, but we can ask JNPR if they heard anything. I think Pyrrha mentioned asking her help for something recently."

Yang was agreeable, so the pair made their way to JNPR's room, confident that whatever Blake had heard or said to Weiss, it would all make sense.

"This doesn't make any sense," Yang said, flatly, after hearing their explanation. "Ears, faunus, none of that relates back to Weiss. I mean, I guess she talked about the White Fang a little, but why would she even bring that up to Weiss? It's kind of a sensitive subject for both of them."

Pyrrha shrugged, not quite sure, herself. "I suppose if Blake remembered something, like killing one of Weiss' family members, she would feel obligated to tell her," she suggested, and Ruby looked distinctly ill at the thought.

"You really think Blake could kill someone?" She asked, doubtful.

Pyrrha opened her mouth to answer, but paused, closing it again a moment after. "Do you know why I quit being a tournament fighter to be a Huntress?"

The non-sequitur threw Ruby, but she recovered quickly. "Because you wanted to help people?" She suggested, hopefully.

Pyrrha closed her eyes, frowning. "There was a fighter named Thunderclap Mac. He and I were the opening fight for a couple of big names, Crystal Hawks and Lord Bowler, I don't know if you've heard of them." Ruby shook her head, but Pyrrha waved it off, sighing. "It's not important. The point is, I'd never met Mac before the fight, only recordings of his matches, but I could tell he was strong. I knew I would have to bring my A game to beat him. The day of the match came, and Mac came down with food poisoning. He couldn't compete, but his little brother knew that Mac was on the edge of making it or breaking it, and not showing up for a match like that might have irreparably damaged his career. So, he went in his brother's place."

Yang's face was grim. She could already tell the way the story was going.

Pyrrha ran a shaking hand through her hair, staring at a spot on the floor as images of that night flashed by. "Mac's brother was a farmer. Stronger than most men, yeah, but he didn't have his aura unlocked. I threw my spear to open the fight and it went right through him." Ruby gasped as Yang slowly nodded, her feeling proving correct. "There wasn't any question it wasn't my fault legally. Walking into an arena like that without aura is practically suicide. Still, I couldn't keep up with it after that. Fighters and police both hurt people in the line of duty, but there are Hunters who take down giant grimm in the middle of nowhere, and they never have to aim a weapon at another living person."

Ruby shook her head. "Pyrrha, I'm so sorry."

Pyrrha forced a smile. "It's fine, Ruby. What happened was horrible, but I'll never regret coming here and meeting all of you." She dropped the smile as she remembered the original reason she outlined her past. "The point is, I was a completely legal fighter, with a manager and an audience, and I killed a man. Blake was a terrorist. Do you really think she's never killed anyone?"

The question hung in the air like a cloud, no one quite willing to touch it.

Ren came and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. Ruby and Yang departed shortly after, both tangled in their own thoughts.

"I don't think Blake's ever killed anyone," Ruby decided when they made it back to their room. "But whatever issues she and Weiss have, they won't get fixed if they don't talk to each other."

Yang flumped over onto her bed. "So what's the plan, chief?"

Ruby's face screwed up in concentration. Finally, she clapped her hands together and Yang could imagine a lightbulb going off above her head. "Do you remember when dad and uncle Qrow were fighting about Zwei, and neither of them wanted to talk to each other about it?"

A cheshire grin coated Yang's face. "Ruby, you're a genius."

The two sisters prepared their trap, as Weiss and Blake remained blissfully unaware, walking the halls of Beacon even as a web was weaved around them.

The plan was simple.

"Blake, there's a spider in the bathroom, can you get it?" Ruby asked as Yang paged through a magazine lying down behind her.

Blake raised an eyebrow, skeptically. "A spider?"

"Big spider," Yang called from behind the magazine.

"So big," Ruby assured her. "With red eyes. I think it might actually be part grimm."

Blake crossed her arms. "Really."

"I told you she wouldn't do it," Yang said, shaking her head. "I'm pretty sure cats hate spiders. I think I read that somewhere."

"First of all, that's completely not a thing," Blake bristled. "Second of all, even if it was a thing, that doesn't totally dictate who I am. I'm still a thinking, logical being. Third of all, even if it was 'part grimm,' which it isn't, you should be able to-" she groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose as a migraine began to form. "Alright, instead of arguing with you about this, I'll just kill the damn spider."

"Hooray," Ruby cheered as Blake entered the bathroom.

Blake picked up a paper towel, grumbling to herself. "Hey, where's this spider supposed to be, anywa-"

The door slammed behind her, and Blake could hear Yang moving the dresser in front of it, blocking her inside the bathroom.

She tried a few times to escape, but Beacon's doors had more reinforcement than most bank vaults. It was essential that privacy was still maintained when half the students could tear apart a regular building in a few minutes.

Eventually, she resigned herself to sitting down with a book she kept in there for emergencies, to wait out whatever scheme the sisters had hatched.

"Why is the dresser in front of the bathroom?" Weiss asked when she finally returned from the library.

"Blake's trapped in the bathroom," Ruby cried. "And," she grunted as she pushed against the dresser, "it's too heavy to move. Agh, we need your help, Weiss."

"Why doesn't Yang help?" Weiss gestured to the blonde in question, still paging through her magazine. "I'm pretty sure she could lift this, herself."

"Hurt my back," Yang answered, lazily.

Weiss rolled her eyes, but set herself to moving the dresser out of the way with Ruby's help. When it cleared and the door swung open, Weiss felt too hands on her back shoving her inside, before the dresser was brought back into place.

"Got you, too, huh?" A thoroughly unimpressed Blake asked, shutting her book and setting it to the side.

Weiss pounded a fist against the door. "Let me out, right now, you dolt." She stomped her foot at the lack of response.

"I wonder wha-" Blake started before Weiss cut her off.

"Don't talk to me," she snapped.

Blake stood up, furious. "Now listen, here."

"Don't talk to me. Don't touch me. Don't look at me," Weiss slammed on the door one final time before sliding to the ground. "My life is coming apart at the seams," she whispered.

Blake was shocked silent for a few moments before she retreated to the far wall and sat down once again. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again, letting silence reign in the room.

"I'm sorry," she said after a while, "about your family, and friends, and the White Fang; I'm sorry about all of it."

"If it wasn't the White Fang it would have been something else," Weiss answered, hollowly, then slowly turned and shot a grim smile to the faunus across the room. "Did Pyrrha ever ask you if you believed in destiny?"

"Yeah," Blake said with a shrug. "I don't."

Weiss waved a finger, eyes puffy with repressed tears. "I didn't think I did, but after giving it some thought, I changed my mind. I do believe in destiny. But it's not the feel-good, guiding force Pyrrha thinks, oh no. I believe destiny is there to make sure each person gets made just right."

Blake's eyebrows furrowed. "I… don't think I understand."

"Well let's take a look at me," Weiss gestured to herself. "I'm a prodigy, deeply versed in combat and dust engineering, and I have a deeply ingrained sense of pride and decorum because my family owns a few lien," she scoffed, and Blake knew she would have spit if the aforementioned decorum wasn't there. "So how do you make me, hmm? How do you make one Weiss model person?" Blake didn't answer. She wasn't even sure what she would say if she did, but Weiss was undeterred. "Well, obviously an impossibly hard to please family is number one. You can't make a prodigy quite like a little girl looking for attention from her parents," Weiss looked away, rubbing at a glistening eye with her arm.

"To make a combat expert, you have to be raised in an environment of fear. That's very important for W-Weiss models." She choked up on that last one, but got through. "The pride, though, that's the most important part. Your Weiss has to grow up thinking that everything can die, or fade, or be replaced. She can't be around the same person place or thing for more than a month. You have to be sure she knows the only thing that can't be replaced is her name. Because if she loses that, she's nothing."

Weiss laughed, choking on a sob halfway through. "So you see? Making a Weiss is easy if you have those three things. In my case, I had my family to be completely indifferent to everything I did, and the White Fang, they were just great at the environment of fear, thing, and the Schnee name is more valuable to me than just about anything, so they nailed it there, but it doesn't have to be that. Maybe my name is something else, or maybe there are different reasons for my family ignoring me. Maybe the White Fang didn't target my family, but someone would have; someone had to. Because without that fear there is no Weiss."

"I think destiny's real. I think destiny's there to make sure that one way or another, a Weiss gets made. Even if that Weiss isn't me." She brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them, hiding her face as her body was wracked with quiet sobs.

Blake still didn't know what to say.

But she had to say something. "What about Ruby?" She asked, knowing it might not be the right path, but hoping that moving in any direction brought her somewhere tangible she could work with. "What does a standard Ruby model need?"

Weiss sniffed, and two bloodshot eyes peeked out as she hugged her knees tighter. "She needs a too smothering family, so she has to find her alone time tinkering with weapons. She needs a role model, someone she can look up to and trail after like a lovesick puppy, and she needs someone she misses, so she can do her best to emulate them as much as she can."

"Yang?" Blake asked, running her head through the odd sort of analysis on Ruby.

Weiss looked away. "She needs someone to protect, more than anything, she needs to be raised by people just as stubborn as she is, and she needs an open wound, something to drive her forward so she can't stay still for too long."

Blake nodded. Yang's mother was clearly what that last bit was alluding to. 'An open wound' was as good a way to describe it as any. "Me?"

Weiss didn't answer, and Blake was beginning to think she never would when her quite response came. "Pain."

Blake blinked, surprised. "What?"

"You need pain, Blake. Enough pain it got easier to shut everyone out than talk to them enough pain to make it nearly impossible to trust anyone but yourself, enough pain to keep pretending you can't feel it anymore even when it's pounding against you every day." Weiss's face dropped behind her knees again. "I don't know about your family, who they are, or even if they're still alive, or your friends, or home. But I know your pain. I know all about it. Because that's what makes you, Blake."

It was an exceptionally odd way to describe Blake, but she knew it wasn't wrong. "You're a faunus. Aren't you?"

Weiss gave her a wan smile. "What do you think?"

Blake stood, slowly, and walked to the crouching girl, kneeling down and placing a hand on her shoulder. "I think… destiny couldn't have made a better Weiss."

The tears ran freely down Weiss' face as the two embraced, and Blake felt each shaking sob as it tore through her friend.

Maybe Weiss was a faunus. Maybe she wasn't. But she was Weiss. For now, for Blake, that was enough.


End file.
